Little Audrey by Ruth White

I have a new author to read - Ruth White. Her latest book, Little Audrey, is an autobiographical novel, except she writes as though she is her older sister Audrey and not herself. White says the events are totally true, but she chose to call her work fiction because she does not truly know her late sister's thoughts.

The setting is pretty bleak. It is 1948. Audrey, who is recovering from scarlet fever, is called "the skeleton girl" by her arch enemies, two school boys who enjoy tormenting her. Her father works in the coal mines of southwestern Virginia and is mostly paid in scrips that can be used at the company store. Her three younger sisters greatly annoy her. Her mother is struggling to cope with the death of an infant and with the irresponsibility of an alcoholic husband. There are weeks that they run out of food before pay day.

Luckily, Audrey has friends, like Virgil, with his endless supply of jokes about monkeys. Also, a teacher, neighbors, and her mother do much to help, but still she struggles. I suspect many readers will see a bit of themselves in the girl who so much wants a better life than she has. I do.

I enjoyed every minute that I read Little Audrey. I might read it again.

White, Ruth. Little Audrey. Farrar Straus Giroux, 2008. ISBN 9780374345808

Hitler's Private Library: The Books That Shaped His Life by Timothy W. Ryback

When many people think about Adolf Hitler, they think of pure evil. He and his Nazi henchmen did many awful things. It is so hard to understand how anyone could be so bad. Many people just shrug and say that evil men just exist. This seems naive and shortsighted. How will we ever build a better world if we do not understand what went wrong in the past?

In the opening chapters of Hitler's Private Library: The Books That Shaped His Life by Timothy W. Ryback, Hitler is already a bit twisted. He has been stung by the rejection of his applications to be an art or architectural student. He has broken with some of his siblings. He is a message runner in the German Army of World War I, which he is enjoying. He is the sole survivor in his division from the original corps of men darting between the trenches. Though he will occasionally drink in the beer halls, he spends most of his time reading. At this point, the books seems rather innocuous - travel, art, and a little history. He seems almost likable if you keep your distance.

Soon after Hitler leaves the army, he is befriended by Dietrich Eckart, a much older man, a publisher of anti-Semitic books. There was a booming trade in anti-Jewish literature that made a nice profit for authors and publishers who could meet the demand. Eckart heard Hitler speak at a Nazi gathering in a beer hall and immediately recognized the young man as motivational force, something that Hitler himself had not seen. Eckart invited Hitler into his circle and began tutoring him on history, oration, and the ways of power. He gives him books to read.

I find one of the episodes that soon followed a bit difficult to believe. Hitler led a coup attempt in which people died for which he was arrested, tried, and convicted. He was imprisoned, but his cell was essentially a simple, comfortable, spacious private suite. He was allowed as many visitors as could come. He was given books, paper, and a typewriter. Here he wrote Mein Kampf, which his friends arranged to publish, even in a special limited leather-bound edition with gold lettering. He had plenty of money soon after his release from prison. (I have over-simplified this story, but this is a nutshell telling.) How can someone convicted of treason be so gently treated? He had supporters even among the people who convicted him.

I do not read a lot of German history, but I know one of the big questions is "Why did the German people so readily follow Hitler?" The quick answer is that the terms of peace from World War I were so painful to Germany and the people were tired of hardships and having a totally new government every year. Another big factor that comes up continually in Hitler's Private Library is that people were terribly afraid of communism. Many seemed perfectly willing to give up all civil liberties to protect them from the terror of the Bolsheviks.

In every chapter, Ryback discusses the books that Hitler read, many of which the author has examined at the Library of Congress or at Brown University. He tells which pages are smudged and what passages are marked. He also describes how many books were taken by U.S. and Soviet soldiers from the many Hitler residences as they fell into Allied hands. There should still be many thousands of books with either Hitler's signature or bookplate in private collections around the world.

At only 246 pages of actual text, Ryback's book will interest many readers unwilling to tackle gigantic Hitler biographies. It is a good addition to most public and academic libraries. Put it on display.

Ryback, Timothy W. Hitler's Private Library: The Books That Shaped His Life. Alfred A. Knopf, 2008. ISBN 9781400042043.

What Does a Librarian Do after Reading a Sunday Newspaper?

After reading the Sunday Chicago Tribune, I often find myself going to the Internet to look something up. This is not because the Tribune is now putting additional information online in an attempt to streamline and economize. I rarely do as they suggest. I go to start applying the daily news to my own life and profession. Here are my actions after reading the January 25, 2009 issue.

1. I went to the iTunes Store to see if I could get a podcast of President Obama's weekly radio broadcast from Saturday, January 24. I could. It was from ABC News and looked to be an hour and 24 minutes. I thought that seemed awfully long. I found that it was actually only 5 minutes and ten seconds. The President mentions support for school libraries in his message as well as high speed Internet for rural areas.

2. After reading about Andrew Bird, a classical violinist who has crossed over to rock, I went to YouTube to see if I could find some videos. I found 15. He plays his violin, guitar, sings, and even whistles. I like this live performance.

3. I went to SWAN, our consortium's shared catalog to see if any library owns books by Cass Sunstein, Obama's pick as regulation czar. Like Bird in YouTube, there were 15 hits.

4. I looked at SWAM again to see if my library has the books nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Prizes. I recognized many titles, but a few were new to me. Only one library in the system owns The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart by M. Glenn Taylor. My library did well in having most of the nominated titles in fiction, biography, and nonfiction, but we missed on most of the autobiographies. I went to Baker & Taylor to ordered some books.

Perhaps, I am old fashioned reading the newspaper, but it is still part of my information quest. It alerts me to issues that I research further. It will be sad to see it go, which it may soon.

A Nuclear Family Vacation: Travels in the World of Atomic Weaponry by Nathan Hodge and Sharon Weinberger

What is "nuclear tourism"? People plan their vacations around a variety of interests - battlefields, beaches, amusement parks, museums, national parks, vintage diners, etc. In the opinion of journalists Nathan Hodge and Sharon Weinberger, there is nothing more interesting than visiting atomic weapon facilities, places where bombs were designed, tested, manufactured, or deployed. As you can imagine, many of these places are off-limits to the average traveler. In A Nuclear Family Vacation: Travels in the World of Atomic Weaponry, the couple describe their two year quest to get into national and foreign weapons sites.

They mostly succeeded. It helped that Hodge had worked for Jane's Defense Weekly and Weinberger for Defense Technology International. (They have also written for Wired and Slate.) They got into numerous facilities in the United States, the Marshall Islands, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Iran. They have not yet gotten into facilities in North Korea. At all of the sites, they noted the state of technology, comfort of living spaces, and mood of the employees, and they talk with supervisors and public relations officers.

They see some pretty interesting things:

• The furniture and equipment in the missile silos of the Midwest is really old.
• The test range scientists in Nevada decorate their offices with their favorite mushroom clouds.
• Russian reactors do not seem to have much security.
• In the National Atomic Museum in Albuquerque is a deactivated atomic bomb in a backpack designed for U.S. military suicide bombers.

What they discovered about public policy is also disturbing. The men and women who make their living off weapons of mass destruction, naturally, do not want their jobs to disappear. They and the corporations that seek huge government contracts have found ways to continue by "modernizing" old weapons, but what sounds like upkeep in some cases turns out to really be new and costly programs. What's more is that nearly everyone admits that there is no scenario now for which the weapons will be used. There is no Soviet Union, and atomic bombs are useless in the fight the war against terrorists. Congress gives the weapons programs much less than their administrators request, which is also much more than nuclear opponents think they should get.

Many of the chapters could stand alone as magazine articles, as you would expect from magazine journalists. "Chapter 9: Fantasy Island: Vacationing in the Marshall Islands" is particularly sad, as it describes the effects of nuclear testing on the people and the environment of the remote Pacific islands.

Hodge and Weinberger seem to have a very good understanding of defense issues and present alternative sides in arguments. Mostly they are fair and sympathetic to the people they interview, though they do express some annoyance at an Iranian official who keeps giggling. Perhaps the issue of billions of dollars for antiquated weapons will resurface in the news soon. A Nuclear Family Vacation is an excellent addition to any library.

Hodge, Nathan and Weinberger, Sharon. A Nuclear Family Vacation: Travels in the World of Atomic Weaponry. Bloomsbury, 2008. ISBN 9781596913789.

Extraordinary Leaves: Photographs by Stephen Green-Armytage: Text by Dennis Schrader

When Bonnie and I travel to other cities, we seek out botanical gardens and and conservatories. ("It was Mr. Green in the conservatory with the candlestick.") We have been to great places like the United States Botanical Garden in Washington, D.C. (close to the Capitol) and the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh. When we are just hanging around Chicago, we enjoy visiting the Garfield Park Conservatory. These places are filled with beautiful flowers, stately palms, and plants with usual leaves. It was through these visits that I learned that leaves are not just green.

So I was intrigued when a reader asked me to find "that big new book with beautiful photos of leaves." He did not remember the author or title. After not finding what he wanted in the 580s, I did a search in the online catalog, sorted by date and found Extraordinary Leaves: Photographs by Stephen Green-Armytage: Text by Dennis Schrader in our photography section. It was the book! Because he just wanted the author and title to tell a friend in another town, I was free to check out the book. (It sometimes happens that I help someone and I am the one who ends up checking out the book.)

Extraordinary Leaves is filled with full-page photographs of colorful and strangely shaped leaves. Some green leaves have red or purple veins, yellow spots, white stripes, or multi-color splashs. Some are as varied as a bag of M&Ms. Some are almost unbelievable, like this plant that we saw in Pittsburgh.

Extraordinary Leaves is a particulary welcome book to find in the dead of winter. Add it to either your gardening or photography collection.

Extraordinary Leaves: Photographs by Stephen Green-Armytage: Text by Dennis Schrader. Firefly Books, 2008. ISBN 9781554073870

BBC Knowledge Magazine

When our staff took a tour of the LaGrange Public Library in December, Julie, who manages our magazine collection, noticed BBC Knowledge. It is a splashy new title coming out at a time when many magazines seem to be folding. The BBC must think the American market is still ripe for good periodicals.

You can look through the December issue online. You'll find that the articles focus on science, history, and nature. BBC marketing says that the new magazine is aimed at the curious reader. In the December issue are articles on sloths, the new particle accelerator being built in Switzerland, and a new history book and TV series from Simon Schama. In the interview, the provocative Schama says that the United States has a less obviously military culture than Britain. He says, however, the "citizen soldier" that Jefferson envisoned as a restaint against invading foreign countries has not worked well, pointing out the gungho wars against Mexico (1845) and Iraq. There are also many short news items in this very colorful magazine.

Thomas Ford is starting a subscription to add to our "more browsing/less research" periodicals collection.

The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama

I do not usually review bestsellers, but here I am doing it two days in a row. On Inauguration Day, it seems appropriate to review The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by our new president, Barack Obama.

To be a little different, I listened to the book on my iPod, checked out from my library's audiobook book collection. What most surprised me was that the author read the book himself. I thought that he would be too busy to go through recording sessions. He must have deemed it important enough to make the time. He is a good story teller. If he can maintain the affable tone of his audiobook through his presidency, many people will be reassured.

Throughout the text, the new president tells the reader that he is a pragmatist, leery of ideology. Describing the political conflicts that he has witnessed in his career, he often presents both sides of the arguments, expressing some affinities with both parties. In light of his political affiliation, I was especially surprised how he admires Ronald Reagan. As a frequent reader of history, I was impressed with his knowledge of the past. One must remember that he is a law school professor.

Here's hoping for his sake and ours that he can be a president who learns from history, not one doomed to repeat it.

If you have not overdosed on the election and inauguration, consider reading the new president's statement of his philosophy.

Obama, Barak. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. Crown Publishers, 2006. ISBN 0307237699

Dewey: The Small-Town Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron

I am a librarian who likes cats, and I have a daughter in college in Iowa, so reading Dewey: The Small-Town Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron seems natural for me. To make it even better, we bought the copy at Prairie Lights Book Store in Iowa City, who donated a portion of the sale to a local animal shelter. Laura and I gave the book to Bonnie for Christmas, and she then let us all read it. Our family encounter with the book makes a nice story.

Dewey itself is a good story, which is not to say that it is all sweet. It is a memoir from Iowa, which means there are going to be hard times recalled. The heartland of America seems to be a place with hard winters, poor farms, struggling communities, and dysfunctional but loving families, which we saw in Man Killed by Pheasant and in Little Heathens. Dewey is no exception.

Myron has really written two connecting stories, only one of which is billed on the title page. Most readers have heard about the cat's story, which draws them to the book. They may not expect Myron's memoir, which is what makes the book stand out from the many pet stories now on bookstores and libraries. In her forthright Midwestern way, Myron tells how she survived family tragedies, sexual discrimination (no college for the girls in the family), poor health, a bad marriage, and single motherhood. As in the other Iowa memoirs that I have read recently, the author admits to all the stupid things that she has done. While Dewey's story is entertaining, Myron's story is the more compelling part for me.

I don't have to tell anyone to buy this book, as many have already. Librarians might use it as a lure to other Midwestern memoirs, such as Population 485 by Michael Perry and The Summer of Ordinary Ways by Nicole Lea Helget.

Myron, Vicki. Dewey: The Small-Town Cat Who Touched the World. Grand Central Publishing, 2008. ISBN 9780446407410

John Mortimer, 1923-2009

When actor Leo McKern (the man in the wig) died in 2002, I thought the crusty old barrister Horace Rumpole would not be seen again. McKern was the image of Rumpole for the BBC in Great Britain and PBS Mystery in America, but the true source of the character was the lawyer and author John Mortimer (the taller man), who was not ready to retire his creation. In fact, Mortimer, who had not written a Rumpole book for seven years, then wrote five more, which were published between 2002 and 2007. The last was Rumpole Misbehaves.

It is a mistake, however, to only think of Mortimer as the author of the Rumpole series. He had a long and successful law career, in which, like Rumpole, defended clients that other barristers declined. He also wrote novels, short stories, autobiography, and plays for stage, radio, and television, including the screenplay for the highly acclaimed BBC production of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited.

The BBC has written an appreciative obituary. A biography of Mortimer is evolving at Wikipedia, as over 120 edited to his page have been made in the past 48 hours. There is a lengthy bibliography there. For a deeper look, try Mortimer's autobiography Clinging to the Wreckage, which tells about his early life and career.

The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell

Back at the University of Texas in the 1970s, I took a survey of American history course with Professor Howard Miller. It was a revelation, for he contradicted much of what I had been taught in high school. Professor Miller had a habit of saying "I know what your high school football coach said, but ..." (Texas schools were known for giving history classes to coaches.) Miller's emphasis was the role of religion in American history, and he told us about many of the shenanigans of our forefathers. I am certain that he likes The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell. She surpasses his cheekiness. Listening to her passionate, critical, irreverent, and wacky account of John Winthrop and the Massachusetts Bay Puritans (as opposed to the Plymouth Puritans) reminds me what a great course that was with Professor Miller.

Of course, Vowell is from another generation than Miller. He would never bring episodes of The Brady Bunch and Happy Days into the discussion. I also am sure he would never compare Winthrop and the man he helped expel from the colony Roger Williams to Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan. Vowell makes incredible connections between the past and present. She shows how the precedents set by these Cambridge theologians in the wilderness, such as the massacre of Pequot women and children, have been repeated frequently in our history. The words of John Cotton ring as justification for the extermination of native Americans and the invasion of Iraq.

I listened to The Wordy Shipmates on audiobook. Within Vowell's reading are many quotes from the diaries, letters, sermons, and court records of the very literate Puritans, each read by an actor. The book also has short musical interludes, allowing the listener to pause and think. I was highly entertained when I was not appalled by what the Puritans did.

The Wordy Shipmates would make an interesting group discussion book. It should be at all public libraries.

Vowell, Sarah. The Wordy Shipmates. Riverhead Books, 2008. ISBN 9781594489990

6 compact discs. Recorded Books, 2008. ISBN 9781436150859

It Is Minus Ten

It is minus ten and beautiful,
The sky is a deep clear blue.
The moon is setting in the west,
I hope you enjoy the view - briefly.
Get back inside!

The Band's Visit: A Film by Elan Korilin

Sixteen people braved the forecast of yet another blizzard last Friday night to come to the Thomas Ford Memorial Library to attend our fortnightly film discussion. The film was Israeli director Elan Korilin's gentle look at Israeli-Arab relations, The Band's Visit. Their luck held. The storm came late in the night hours after they enjoyed a sweet comedy.

It would be easy to overstate yet under appreciate the unspoken political aspects of the film. An Egyptian band from Alexandria visits Israel to celebrate the opening of an Arab cultural center, but no one meets them at the airport. They are then lost when they take a bus to the wrong community. Korilin could have used differences to drive the plot, but he chose instead to develop connections. Viewers are quickly more interested in the relationships of individuals and oblivious to any regional conflicts.

"No one makes films like that in America" was one comment, referring to the great use of silence and the slow passage of time. As the projectionist, I was at first concerned that we had no sound, as the film began without music, focused on a white van parked outside an airport in southern Israel. For a minute, maybe two, there was nothing to hear and little to see. Finally, we heard the click of the van door and the soft steps of its driver. The sound did work. With silence Korilin quietly caught our attention and made us listen very closely.

Also, The Band's Visit is a film with very wisely rationed music. There are no throw-away let's-bridge-two-scenes melodies. Most of the music comes late in the film, a reward for those who wait patiently. In a short documentary on the DVD, the director explains how he stripped much of the original music from the film. He also tells how he focused more on images than on dialogue and plot to get the script right. It took him nine years.

The Band's Visit swept the 2007 film awards in Israel. Its cast is a mixture of Israelis and Palestinians. It is an infectiously hopeful film for a sad and broken time. I recommend it for film discussions and library collections.

Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression

Growing up in Iowa seems to be the stuff of good literature. Man Killed by Pheasant is not the only recent memoir set in the Hawkeye State. In Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression, Mildred Armstrong Kalish also takes readers back to an Iowa childhood, though a bit farther in time than John T. Price in the other book. There she describes the daily life in a small town and on a small farm at a time when money was scarce but hope for a better time was in abundance.

Kalish and her family would have been in deep trouble if not for the support of grandparents and an extended family. When Mildred was very young, her father ran away. She never explains why. Maybe everyone was just as glad to have him gone, as everyone regroups and carries on without him. Money hardly mattered. The family had land, chickens, pigs, corn, and fresh vegetables. They made their own soap, clothes, fuel, medecines, etc. When they did get something "store brought," they made the most of it. I was particularly impressed with reusing the wax paper from boxes of cereal to wrap sandwiches. That was early green thinking.

You never feel sorry for Kalish as an orphan. She was always getting to eat honey-hickory nut cinnamon rolls, flaky crusted cherry pies, and morel mushrooms from the family's own woodlot. It almost makes me want to travel to that time, but then I recall how the farmhouse had heat only in the kitchen during the long winters, and I think better of my wish.

"How we lived in the past" books can sometimes be boring, but Kalish's memoir, as you can probably tell from the title, is enlivened by many episodes of mischief. She also tells you all the swear words they knew at the time. I recommend Little Heathens to readers who like to learn about other times.

Kalish, Mildred Armstrong. Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression. Bantam Books, 2007. ISBN 9780553804959

Man Killed by Pheasant and Other Kinships by John T. Price

I wish that I wrote as well as John T. Price in Man Killed by Pheasant and Other Kinships. I should not, however, envy him. He makes this clear in his revealing memoir about growing up and living in Iowa. He struggled with bullies, his family's expectations, and his talent to mess up badly. His relationships were strained. He often put off what needs to be done. He accepted jobs for which was not trained. He is not a model student, husband, father, or son, yet he is inspired by the incidents of his life to compose thought-provoking essays. Man Killed by Pheasant is the first book for the graduate of the University of Iowa's Nonfiction Writing Program.

I recommend reading all the stories in his collection. I felt only mildly curious after the first couple, but the intensity of Price's life builds through the book. Though I sometimes wished I could shake some sense into him, I could not stop reading. I was particularly impressed with "Why Geese Don't Winter in Paradise" in which he sees some of the sense in his grandfather's hallucinations.

One strong theme through the book is Price's connecting with the natural world. He points out that Iowa has lost almost all of its natural prairie and is in many ways a sculpted environment with big agriculture and industrial towns. Still, bits of nature survive and even threaten the state's inhabitants - the floods that reclaim floodplains and the birds that fly in car windows.

While Midwestern readers may more quickly connect to Price's book, I recommend it to all readers who like memoirs and personal essays.

Price, John T. Man Killed by Pheasant and Other Kinships. Da Capo Press, 2008. ISBN 9780306816055

Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave Trading Family in U. S. History by Thomas Norman DeWolf

History becomes very alive when you discover that your own ancestors participated in atrocities. Such was the case for Thomas Norman DeWolf, who grew up in Oregon, far from Bristol, Rhode Island, the ancestral family home of the prominent DeWolf family. The DeWolfs owned ships that sailed the Atlantic Ocean in the 18th and 19th centuries, Bristol to Africa to the Caribbean to Bristol, the infamous Triangle Trade of slaves, sugar, and rum. DeWolf tells about his unusual journey of enlightenment in Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave Trading Family in U. S. History.

DeWolf's cousin Katrina Brown discovered the "family secret." It was not really a secret, she confessed. She said she had always known that there was something dark about her family's past. All the history was readily available, but she had never connected the dots of family, ships, and slaves. When she read a note from her grandmother that mentioned the family trade, she was roused to learn more. She studied history and planned a family pilgrimage to confront the legacy. She invited many distant cousins to join her in a trip to Bristol, Ghana, and Cuba, but only ten agreed to come. She recorded the journey in her Point of View documentary Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North.

One of cousins who agreed to participate was DeWolf, the only one to bear the family name. The clan met in Bristol outside the family church in 2001. Over the next several months, they traveled to the sites where ancestors bought and sold slaves. The experience joined with a personal scandal of his own several years later transformed DeWolf's life. It took seven years for him to sort out his feelings and publish this book.

The book may also be a journey of discovery for the reader. DeWolf fully describes the vile slave prisons, ships, and sugar plantations from which the family fortune arose, a legacy that provided wealth and privileged for many generations, many of whom attended Harvard, Princeton, and Brown. He reports on the heated family discussions about their complicity and their ideas for reparations. A strong point made is that all of the city of Bristol was involved as trading partners, ship builders, and investors. Furthermore, all of America participated in slavery, North and South. The wealth of our country is derived from stolen land and stolen labor. Furthermore again, all of Europe and the Middle East participated in ten centuries of African slave trade. There are no innocent parties.

I found the book electrifying for personal reasons, too. Though I grew up in Texas, many generations removed, I learned several years ago that I had ancestors in Bristol, including Shearjashub Bourne, who reportedly owned shares in 42 ships! Looking at the new Voyages Database, I found records for the voyages of several of his ships. Also on those records, as joint owner or captain, was the name DeWolf. What a small world!

Inheriting the Trade would be a great book for discussion groups in libraries, who might also show Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North.

DeWolf, Thomas Norman. Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave Trading Family in U. S. History. Beacon Press, 2008. ISBN 9780807072813

Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street by Michael David

I asked for a history of Sesame Street, so I was pleased to read a review for Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street by Michael David. Of course, I scoffed at the idea of the book being "complete." I knew that it would not tell as much as I wanted to know, and I was right. The word "complete" should be banned from book titles. Still it is a detailed and admiring account of the birth of an idea and nearly forty years of producing television for children.

About half of the book takes place before the show ever airs. David tells how Children's Television Workshop founder Joan Ganz Cooney, Lloyd Morrisett, and other education experts first conceived the program. The author also tells about the apprenticeship of several of the writers and producers with Captain Kangaroo and other shows. Of course, several chapters recount the education and rise of Jim Henson and his company of Muppeteers. With the struggles for funding and the debates over format, content, and venue, nearly three years elapsed between the idea and the premier of the most ambitious project in children's television ever.

I most enjoyed reading about the development of story lines, the development of Muppet characters, and the hiring of the actors. I now know that the characters Gordon, Susan, Bob, and Mr. Hooper were at first seen as hosts who would tie all the short films together, and that the humans were originally supposed to remain separated from the Muppets, so as not to confuse young children about reality. Tests at nursery schools, however, showed the original format rather lifeless, with the young viewers paying more interest when the Muppets were on screen. The revised format featured a mixed cast and an urban street set that allowed writers great latitude in their story telling.

While the author admires the show, he does not hesitate to reveal backstage drama and conflict. Some of the production team were always at odds with each other. One of the early actors sank under the troubles of bipolar disease. Several marriages suffered from the great around-the-clock demands of producing the show. Most of the originators died tragically. New management made unpopular changes (some of which were later reversed) to meet the Barney challenge.

Street Gang is a compelling overview that I read quickly. Having grown up in an area that had no public television, not seeing the first twenty years of the series, I still want more about the seasons, introduction of characters, story lines, and famous episodes. With this being the fortieth anniversary, there might be more books and television specials coming. I hope so.

So, who are your favorite Sesame Street Muppets? I think I have to go with Bert.

David, Michael. Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street. Viking, 2008. ISBN 9780670019960

Biography Beat 2009

This is the third of three reports on biography publishing. The first dealt with 1909 and the second on 2008.

The economy may be a factor in publishing in 2009, but there are no signs of fewer biographies yet. Mainstream publishers have issued catalogs promoting many upcoming titles. Searching Baker and Taylor's B&T Link Online today (January 3, 2009), I find 1251 hits for the subject "biography" and 72 for keyword "memoir" to be published in 2009. There will, of course, be more titles added to the database as the year progresses.

As they did in 1909, publishers (some being the same imprints) are scheduling titles to connect with the Abraham Lincoln anniversary:

• A. Lincoln: A Biography by Ronald C. White. Ecco Press, January 2009. ISBN 9781400064991
• Abraham Lincoln, 1861-1865 by George S. McGovern. St. Martin's Press, January 2009. (The American Presidents). ISBN 9780805083453
• Abraham Lincoln: A Presidential Life by James M. McPherson. Oxford University Press, February 2009. ISBN 9780195374520
• Lincoln's Men: The President and His Private Secretaries by Daniel Mark Epstein. HarperCollins, February 2009. ISBN 9780061565441
• Mrs. Lincoln by Catherine Clinton. Simon Spotlight, January 2009. ISBN 9780060760403

Of course, there have always been many books about Lincoln. It is almost too late to be publishing Lincoln books for the anniversary as there have been many highly touted titles in the last three or four years. On pages 16 and 17, the December 15, 2008 issue of Booklist reviews thirteen core collection Lincoln titles.

One of the coincidences of history is that Abraham Lincoln was born on the same day as Charles Darwin. In this year of bicentennials, this was noticed by author Adam Gopnik who wrote a dual biography:

• Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Lincoln, Darwin, and Modern Life by Adam Gopnik. Atria, January 2009. ISBN 9780307270788

Unlike Lincoln, there will not be a flood of books about Darwin in the mainstream book market. Looking at B&T Link Online, most of the titles that I found were scholarly. There is one book that is being marketed to the general public:

• Darwin's Garden: Down House & The Origin of Species by Michael Boulter. Counterpoint, February 2009. ISBN 9781582434711

2009 is also the bicentennial of the birth of poet and short story writer Edgar Allan Poe. Prolific biography Peter Ackroyd took the opportunity to write:

• Poe: A Life Cut Short by Peter Ackroyd. Bantam Dell, January 2009. ISBN 9780385508001

Felix Mendelssohn, Louis Braille, Alfred Tennyson, and Kit Carson were also born in 1809. 1909 was not as remarkable a year for the birth of historical and cultural figures. Wallace Stegner, Barry Goldwater, Maybelle Carter, Benny Goodman, and Simone Weil are leading names from that year.

Early 2009 will see new titles from some leading and upcoming biographers:

• Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King. Simon & Schuster, January 2009. ISBN 9780312377328
• Mistress of the Monarchy: The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster. Scribner's, January 2009. ISBN 9780345453235
• Mrs. Lincoln by Catherine Clinton. Simon Spotlight, January 2009. ISBN 9780060760403 (also mentioned in the Lincoln books)
• Pauline Bonaparte: Venus of Empire by Flora Fraser. Knopf, February 2009. ISBN 9780307265449
• She Always Knew How: Mae West: A Personal Biography by Charlotte Chandler. Simon & Schuster, February 2009. ISBN 9781416579090
• Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America, 1858-1919 by Douglas Brinkley. HarperCollins, March 2009. ISBN 9780060565282
• Woman Who Named God: Abraham's Dilemma and the Birth of Three Faiths by Charlotte Gordon. Little, Brown, March 2009. ISBN 9780316114745

Of the many other biographies, these sound particularly interesting to me:

• Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor by Brad Gooch. Little, Brown, February 2009. ISBN 9780316000666
• House of Wittgenstein: A Family at War by Alexander Waugh. Doubleday, February 2009. ISBN 9780385520607
• Painter's Chair: George Washington and the Making of American Art by Hugh Howard. Bloomsbury, February 2009. ISBN 781596912441
• Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Francis Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience by Kristin Downey. Random House, March 2009. ISBN 9780385513654

There are many memoirs coming to library shelves. Knowing which to choose to purchase is difficult, as we all have our own tastes and may not realize what would interest other readers. I know that in the past I have passed over some memoirs that later became blockbusters. Here are some titles that look promising to me:

• Confessions of a Mullah Warrior by Masood Farivar. Atlantic Monthly Press, March 2009. ISBN 9780871139825
• Cooking & Screaming by Adrienne Kane. Simon Spotlight, February 2009. ISBN 9781416587972
• Death by Leisure: A Cautionary Tale by Chris Ayres. Grove Press, February 2009. ISBN 9780802118813
• Honeymoon in Tehran: Two Years of Love and Danger in Iran by Azadeh Moaveni. Random House, February 2009. ISBN 9781400066452
• Jane Goodall's Return to Gombe: Reflections on a Life's Work in Africa by Jane Goodall. Penguin Group, February 2009. ISBN 9780525949954
• Seeking Peace: Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the World by Mary Pipher. Riverhead Books, March 2009. ISBN 9781594488610
• That Went Well: Adventures in Caring for My Sister by Terrell Harris Dougan. Random House, January 2009. ISBN 9781401323295
• War Child: A Child Soldier's Story by Emmanuel Jal. St. Martin's Press, February 2008. ISBN 9780312383220
• Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation: Stories of My Family's Journey to Freedom by John F. Baker, Jr. Atria, February 2009. ISBN 9781416567400

That's all I know at the moment, gleaned from reviews and announcements. I will keep my ear to the ground, and let you know when I hear something more.

Best of Biography 2008: Seven Lists

At the end of the year, many publications issue their "best of the year" lists. Looking at the lists for 2008, you will see that biographies and memoirs claimed a lot of spots. You'll also notice that there is little agreement between lists, as most of the titles mentioned make only one list. There is even less agreement about memoirs as there is in third-person biography. As a reader this is great, for there are many titles from which to choose. As a librarian from a small library with limited funds, it is tough. How can we ever get all the good books. We can't. It is good we belong to a large consortium.

I identify the biographies and memoirs from seven well-known sources below. There should be something for almost any reader here, including family biographies, such as The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (in four of the lists) and The Bid Ladens: An Arabian Family in an American Century.

There are several group or collective biographies, as well, including Capitol Men: The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through the Lives of the First Black Congressmen and Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon—and the Journey of a Generation.

Memoirs The Night of the Gun: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of His Life--His Own and The Suicide Index: Putting My Father's Death in Order make three of the lists.

The final list, Kirkus Reviews Top Picks for Reading Groups 2008, includes only memoirs and no third-party biographies.


Amazon Editors' Picks: Top 100 Books of 2008

Biography
The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Inspired America
Thurston Clarke

Sitting Bull
Bill Yenne

The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
Annette Gordon-Reed

The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington
Jennet Conant

Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America
Rick Perlstein

The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts
Tom Farley

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
Alice Schroeder

Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt
H.W. Brands

Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency
Barton Gellman


Memoirs
Collections of Nothing
William Davies King

The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead
David Shields

The Night of the Gun: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of His Life--His Own
David Carr

The Monster of Florence
Douglas Preston

The Suicide Index: Putting My Father's Death in Order
Joan Wickersham

Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction
David Sheff



New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2008

Biography
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House
Jon Meacham.

Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency
Barton Gellman.

Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba: The Biography of a Cause
Tom Gjelten

Capitol Men: The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through the Lives of the First Black Congressmen
Philip Dray

Champlain's Dream
David Hackett Fischer

Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World
Samantha Power

Condoleezza Rice: An American Life: A Biography
Elisabeth Bumiller

The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
Annette Gordon-Reed

Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America
Rick Perlstein

Nureyev: The Life
Julie Kavanagh

Shakespeare's Wife
Germaine Greer

White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Brenda Wineapple

The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul
Patrick French


Memoirs
Blood Matters: From Inherited Illness to Designer Babies, How the World and I Found Ourselves in the Future of the Gene
Masha Gessen

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir
Elizabeth McCracken

Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life
John Adams.

The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood
Helene Cooper

Nothing to Be Frightened Of
Julian Barnes.

The Three of Us: A Family Story
Julia Blackburn

Thrumpton Hall: A Memoir of Life in My Father’s House
Miranda Seymour




Publisher's Weekly Best Books of the Year 2008


Biography
Abraham Lincoln: A Life
Michael Burlingame

The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
Annette Gordon-Reed

Champlain's Dream
David Hackett Fischer

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
Alice Schroeder

The Open Road: The Global Journey of the 14th Dalai Lama
Pico Iyer



Memoirs
Nothing to Be Frightened Of
Julian Barnes

The Journal of Hélène Berr
Hélène Berr

The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music
Steve Lopez

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir
Elizabeth McCracken

The Soul of the Rhino: A Nepali Adventure with Kings and Elephant Drivers, Billionaires and Bureaucrats, Shamans and Scientists, and the Indian Rhinoceros
Hemanta Mishra with Jim Ottaway Jr.

Epilogue: A Memoir
Anne Roiphe

Audition: A Memoir
Barbara Walters

My Jesus Year: A Rabbi's Son Wanders the Bible Belt in Search of His Own Faith
Benyamin Cohen

Reasons to Believe: One Man's Journey Among the Evangelicals and the Faith He Left Behind
John Marks

Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life
Kathleen Norris




Library Journal Best Books 2008

Biography
The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman's Fight To Save the World's Most Beautiful Bird
Bruce Barcott

Shakespeare's Wife
Germaine Greer

John Lennon: The Life
Philip Norman

Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented the Supernatural
Jim Steinmeyer

Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon—and the Journey of a Generation
Sheila Weller


Memoirs
The Night of the Gun: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of His Life. His Own.
David Carr

Split: A Memoir of Divorce
Suzanne Finnamore

Hurry Down Sunshine: A Memoir
Michael Greenberg

Books: A Memoir
Larry McMurtry



Washington Post Book World Best Books 2008

Biography
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
Annette Gordon-Reed

Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer
Fred Kaplan

Alfred Kazin
Richard M. Cook

American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House

Jon Meacham

Five Easy Decades
Dennis McDougal

Gerard Manley Hopkins
Paul Mariani

Ida
Paula J. Giddings

Madame de Staël
Francine du Plessix Gray

The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes
Andrew Lycett

The Open Road
Pico Iyer

A Passion for Nature
Donald Worster

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
Alice Schroeder

Stanley
Tim Jeal

Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt
H.W. Brands

Tried by War
James M. McPherson

The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul
Patrick French


Memoirs
The Eaves of Heaven: A Life in Three Wars
Andrew X. Pham

Audition: A Memoir
Barbara Walters

Counselor
Ted Sorensen

From Harvey River
Lorna Goodison

Grand Obsession
Perri Knize

Hope's Boy
Andrew Bridge

Kinky Gazpacho
Lori L. Tharps

Résistance
Agnès Humbert

The Suicide Index: Putting My Father's Death in Order
Joan Wickersham


Chicago Tribune "Favorites from '08" and "2008: An Impressionistic Array of This Year's Titles"

Biography
Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
Annette Gordon-Reed

Mr. Gatling's Terrible Marvel: The Gun That Changed Everything and the Misunderstood Genius Who Invented It
Julia Keller

Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America
Rick Peristein

Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidence of Franklin Delano Roosevelt
H. W. Brands

Painter in a Savage Land: The Strange Saga of the First European Artist in North America
Miles Harvey

The Bid Ladens: An Arabian Family in an American Century
Steve Coll

Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam
Pope Brock

Gerald Manley Hopkins: A Life
Paul Mariani

Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching
Paula J. Giddings

Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer
Fred Kaplan

American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House
Jon Meacham

Memoirs

The Crowd Sounds Happy: A Story of Love, Madness, and Baseball
Nicholas Dawidoff

The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood
Helene Cooper

The Suicide Index: Putting My Father's Death in Order
Joan Wickersham


Kirkus Reviews Top Picks for Reading Groups 2008

Memoirs

I'm Looking Through You: Growing Up Haunted: A Memoir
Jennifer Finney Boylan

Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity
Kerry Cohen

Love and Consequences: A Memoir of Hope and Survival
Margaret B. Jones

How to Sleep Alone in a King-Size Bed: A Memoir
Theo Pauline Nestor

"Socialism Is Great!": A Worker's Memoir of the New China
Lijia Zhang

The Ghosts of Biography Past, 1909

I have been thinking recently of launching a web-based newsletter to report on the world of biographical books and media, including advance notice of promising titles. I thought I might call it Biography Beat. I could make a PDF that people would either read online or download and print. My inspiration is Cites & Insights by Walt Crawford. Walt has a following who enjoy knowing when an issue of his newsletter is coming out. I had my eye on doing this January 1, 2009. Well, that is today, and it has not happened. I have been involved in several other projects instead, but I have been gathering biography content. Perhaps it is more timely if I just go ahead and blog what I have found.

A week or so ago, as I nestled under the covers as I woke one cold morning, I thought about the world of biography in 1909. I wondered what were the trends of that year. I imagined that there was not as great a variety of biographies as there are today. My thoughts on this had begun a few days earlier when I examined Brothers in Arms: The Kennedys, the Castros, and the Politics of Murder by Gus Russo and Stephen Molton, which is a investigative four-person biography. I cannot imagine such a book being written in 1909. I assume that one hundred years ago, preceding the 1918 publishing of Eminent Victorians by Lytton Strachey, most biographies were straight, laudatory accounts of prominent people. But, I did not really know for sure. How would I learn about 1909?

As I showered, I remembered that my library card for the College of DuPage Library gives me access to the Historical New York Times database. I surmised that the book review section, if it existed in 1909, might identify the popular biographies of the day. The trick would be to identify the best keywords to search. "Biography" might not be adequate as the word might be pretty widely used.

Luckily, I found that there was The New York Times Saturday Review of Books in 1909. If fact, it celebrated its thirteenth year in October of that year. Like today, it published reviews of new titles, many of which seemed to come from the abundance of New York publishing companies. There also seemed to be a regular column about Boston publishing news and many letters from readers. Revising my search, I found each week's table of contents. While there did not seem to be a chart of bestseller (maybe I missed it somehow), there was something even better for my purposes - a weekly list "Latest Publications," which identified the books that The New York Times had received from publishers each week. I knew I had hit pay dirt when I looked. The list was organized by topics, including "History and Biography."

What did I find?

1. 1909 was the 100th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. Publishers in that year were marketing the anniversary just as much as they are in 2009. In the first two months of the year, these books were received by the editors of the book review:

• Lincoln the Citizen by Henry W. Whitney
• Abraham Lincoln: Tributes from Hist Associates
• Abraham Lincoln: An Interpretation in Biography by Denton J. Snider
• Lincoln and the Sleeping Sentinel: A True Story by L. E. Chittendon
• Abraham Lincoln by Brand Whitlock
• The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and Its Explanation by David Miller DeWitt
• The Death of Lincoln by Clara E. Laughlin
• Lincoln's Love Story by Eleanor Atkinson
• How Abraham Lincoln Became President by J. McCan Davis
• Ancestory of Lincoln by J. Henry Lea and J. R. Hutchinson

2. There were biographies of people who would not be widely known 100 years later, many of them clergy. Most of the titles sound laudatory.

• The Life of James Robertson: Missionary Superintendent in the Northwest Territory by Charles W. Gordon
• Charles W. Eliot: President of Harvard University by Dr. Eugen Kuehnemann
• The Honorable Peter White: A Biographical Sketch of the Lake Superior Iron Country by Ralph D. Williams
• A Memorial of Alice Jackson by Robert E. Speer
• Recollections of Baron de Frenilly, Peer of France
• David Swing: Poet-Preacher by Joseph Fort Newton
• Comrade Kropotkin by Victor Robinson (Lives of Great Altrurians)
• Bartholomew de las Casas: His Life, His Apostolate, and His Writings by Francis Augustus MacNutt
• The Apostle of Alaska: The Story of William Duncan of Metlakahtia by John W. Arctander

3. Figures from European history and culture appeared as subjects of biographies in 1909, when wealthy American still took extended European tours.

• Maid of France: Being the Story of the Life and Death of Jeanne D'Arc by Andrew Lang
• Grieg and His Music by Henry T. Finck
• Sir Walter Raleigh by Frederick A. Ober
• Johannes Brahms: The Herzogenberg Correspondence
• The Love Affairs of Napoleon by J. Lewis May
• William Blake by Basil de Selincourt
• The Court of Louis XIII by K. A. Patmore

4. I did not see dual biographies to compare with Brothers in Arms.


Of course, this is not really an in-depth study of biography in 1909, but I do think it gives us a peek at that time. It occurs to me now that my library still has a 1909 edition of Book Review Digest. I wonder what I might find there?

To be Dickens-like, I will soon report on ghosts of biography present (2008 titles) and ghosts of biography future (2009 titles). Stay tuned.

A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders and Their Quest to See It All by Luke Dempsey

When I first picked up A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders and Their Quest to See It All by Luke Dempsey, I wondered whether it would be like The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik. The latter book also has three birders traveling across the United States trying to see every bird that resides in or migrates through the country. But there is a big difference. In the new book, the birders are friends, not rivals. They even have a pact to not count a bird unless all three identify it, either by sight or sound. They join together for long weekends and vacations, hauling binoculars, scopes, and cameras, and listening to bird songs on an iPod.

Why these people are friends is the question I struggled with. Dempsey tells us how he met Don and Donna Graffiti, a couple who coax him to go out birding. Once they start traveling together, however, all their eccentricities are revealed and tempers flare, but just when the group looks like it might break up, someone spots a ringed kingfisher or an eastern meadowlark. Luke tolerates the horrible motels that Don books, and Donna and Don forgive his penchant for sudden tactless statements to the people they meet. Their common love for the birds holds them together.

I tired of the soap opera aspects of the book but read on for the descriptions of birds and details of how the trio spotted them. Going out into remote areas, such as lonely stretches of the Rio Grande in Texas, brought the friends into contact with some dangerous characters. They'll never know why the smuggler (drugs or people?) backed off after demanding their cameras.

Overall, A Supremely Bad Idea is an entertaining read that makes me long for some warmer weather and time in the wild.

Dempsey, Luke. A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders and Their Quest to See It All. Bloomsbury, 2008. ISBN 9781596913554

The Man Who Loved China by Simon Winchester

Englishman Joseph Needham was a Cambridge-trained biochemist with supreme confidence that he could accomplish anything he set his mind to do. He was also a nonconformist, naively enchanted by communist rhetoric, who both loved his English wife and Chinese mistress passionately. During the darkest days of World War II, he jumped at the chance to serve as a diplomatic envoy to China, where he spent years visiting many remote regions, taking needed books and supplies to university scientists around the Asian country. After learning a few facts about China's forgotten early dominance in science, he resolved to write a definitive history about Chinese scientific and technical achievement. According to popular British author Simon Winchester in The Man Who Loved China, Needham spent the rest of his long life writing the many volumes of Science and Civilization in China.

Winchester credits Needham with changing the way that European people thought about China, which before the 1940s was viewed by many as just poor and backward. What Needham never resolved, however, is how China fell from being the most advanced nation on earth, with claims to many scientific firsts, to being poor and complacent. The mystery is still called the Needham Question in academic circles.

Needham was shunned by many in academics and diplomatic circles for his championing China even after the rise of the communist government Mao Zedong. He once met Mao, who asked him whether the Chinese should replace their bicycles with automobiles. Needham recommended sticking to the bikes. For years, he was denied visas to the United States as a undesirable, despite the acclaim in universities for his monumental history of China. Winchester recounts Needham's single-minded devotion that was eyed suspiciously by both western governments and Chinese authorities.

I enjoyed listening to The Man Who Loved China on an unabridged audiobook, read ably by Winchester himself. It is a great choice for readers of adventure and science biography.

Winchester, Simon. The Man Who Loved China. Recorded Books, 2008. ISBN 9781436107129

Laura's Sculpy Nativity

Laura's Sculpy Nativity
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

Merry Christmas!

Every year we get out all the family decorations, which includes some that we made ourselves. Laura made this little nativity set when she was in her Sculpy Period, back in elementary school. I always thought it was brilliant, as any dad would. It is colorful and nails the characters simply. I wish I were as clever.

I hope you, too, add to your warm memories this holiday season as you gather with family and/or friends.

Peace for everyone.

Rick

ricklibrarian Books That Matter 2008 and Other Awards

It is that time again - the end of the year. All the major reviewing publications are issuing their best books lists, and bloggers are keeping pace with their more personalized lists. Here is what I really liked in 2008. Happy Holiday Reading!


Recent Nonfiction

At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays by Anne Fadiman

Daring to Look: Dorothea Lange's Photographs and Reports from the Field by Anne Whiston Spirn

Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment by Anthony Lewis

Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln by John Stauffer

The Legend of Colton H. Bryant by Alexandra Fuller

The Man Whom Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of Roget's Thesaurus by Jashua Kendall

Mr. Adams's Last Crusade: John Quincy Adams's Extraordinary Post-Presidential Life in Congress by Joseph Wheelan

True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society by Farhad Manjoo

Warm Springs: Traces of a Childhood at FDR's Polio Haven by Susan Richard Shreve

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman



Recent Fiction

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut

For the Relief of Unbearable Urges by Nathan Englander

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson

The Jew of Home Depot and Other Stories by Max Apple

My Fellow Americans by Keir Graff

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri



Great Old Books

The Abbess of Crewe: A Modern Morality Tale by Muriel Spark (from 1974)

Jordan County by Shelby Foote (from 1954)



Children's Books

Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai by Claire A. Nivola



Audiobook

Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat, read by Robin Miles

The Lodger Shakespeare: His Life on Silver Street by Charles Nicholl

The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family by Martha Raddatz



Book Review Blog

Blogging for a Good Book


Library Science

Serving Teen Through Readers' Advisory by Heather Booth



Movies

Chop Shop, directed by Ramin Bahrani

Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, directed by Yimou Zhang



Music

Raising Sand by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss



Performance

Jeeves Intervenes: A Play from First Folio



Presentations at Conferences

Andrew Carnegie with a Yak

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson

When asked what I like best in novels, I say that I like getting to visit another place and time. A bit of gentle humor and sympathetic characters also help. Throw in some plot twists and I am very happy indeed. This all describes A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson.

Drayson's title will probably cause some confussion for years to come. I can imagine readers looking for bird guides getting it from the shelf and saying, "What's this? Where are the color photos?" Each chapter does start with a characture of a bird above the chapter number, but these pen and ink drawings are not really organized for bird spotting.

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa is, despite the title, a novel set in and around present day Nairobi, Kenya. In its first chapter, the characters meet on a bird walk near the car park outside the Nairobi Museum. Rose Mbikwa is a Scottish expatriate who leads the weekly bird walks. Mr. Malik, owner of Jolly Man Manufacturing, is a third generation Indian, whose grandfather immigrated to help build the Kenyan railroad. Mr. Malik is a quiet admirer of Rose and has bought tickets to the annual Hunt Club Ball, but he hasn't the courage to ask her to accompany him to the ball. While he stalls, a playboy from the Indian community, back after years abroad, decides that he will invite Rose. Over drinks at the Asadi Club, their mutual intentions are discovered and friends recommend a birding contest to win the right to ask Rose to the dance.

The week long bird contest with its surprising difficulties takes much of the book. In the process, Drayson reveals many of the joys and sorrows of the struggling African nation and depicts its multi-ethnic community. He also includes many quick bits about the amazingly rich bird life of East Africa. Readers with Zimmerman's Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania can look up each colorful bird as its spotted.

Readers looking for a good book while waiting for the next Alexander McCall Smith title will enjoy A Guide to the Birds of East Africa.

Drayson, Nicholas. A Guide to the Birds of East Africa. Houghton Mifflin, 2008. ISBN 9780547152585

Walking the Wrack Line: On Tidal Shifts and What Remains by Barbara Hurd

I enjoyed Barbara Hurd's collection of essays Stirring the Mud: On Swamps, Bogs, and Imagination so well that I read it twice. Her new collection Walking the Wrack Line: On Tidal Shifts and What Remains is just as good. Hurd takes readers with her to beaches around the world, not for idle recreation, but to see what washes up from the sea. The "wrack line" is the high water mark, the top of the tide, where driftwood, shells, jellyfish, kelp, and garbage are deposited. Hurd always finds something interesting there. What's more, she then always learns something interesting about herself.

Hurd is very quotable. I noted several passages to reread. In "Lime Sea Glass: Transformations," she tells about debris near a long time garbage dump in California. For many decades in the middle of the 20th century, people threw old furniture, refrigerators, and lots of glass and pottery off a cliff into the Pacific Ocean. The constant battering of the waves reduced the broken glass and pottery to pebbles of many colors that are still washing up on a nearby beach. Jewelry makers frequent the multicolor beach. To this, Hurd states the following:

We know now that what's discarded doesn't disappear and that what's in friction with the world - and what, including us, is not? - can be both shattered and smoothed.

In "Bottle and Feather: A Different Question," she finds a feather and contemplates the myth of Icarus flying too near the sun while thinking of her mother recovering from a heart attack. Because her mother can not visit the beach that she can see from her hospital bed in Florida, Hurd agrees to report what she finds. Like in a novel, she finds a bottle with a note inside. The paraffin that seals the bottle is unmovable, so the pair have to decide whether to break the beautiful emerald green bottle to read the note.

One more quote:

Never begin what you can't finish, my father once insisted. I was ten: we were standing over an outdoor rabbit pen I was trying to fashion out of chicken wire. Stumped by my inability to make the cage escape-proof, I nodded my head. But if he were alive now I'd want to ask him how can I ever tell what's finishable, what's not? How can I always know at the outsetthat this is something I can bring to completion or will have to give up on, discard in midform? Even as an adult, I'm drawn to so many things that I might never complete - writing a novel, playing a Bach partita, planting a garden of constant white blooms. And though I tend to keep my false starts and failed attempts private, I'm aware that to never begin such things would likely cause more angst than to leave them half undone.

Walking the Wrack Line is a difficult book to classify but easy to enjoy. I recommend it highly.

Hurd, Barbara. Walking the Wrack Line: On Tidal Shifts and What Remains. University of Georgia Press, 2008. ISBN 9780820331023

Troubles for Reference Librarians

I see that the Winter issue of Reference & Users Services Quarterly from RUSA arrived in my mail yesterday. Just this week I finished reading the Fall issue, which I thought had an unusually high number of articles with findings and ideas that I want to contemplate. Perhaps the most serious observation of them all, the one needing the attention of reference librarians everywhere, is found on page 72, on the fifth page of the article "Subject Searching Success: Transaction Logs, Patron Perceptions, and Implications for Library Instruction" by Karen Antell and Jie Huang*. Here is the part of the quote with the disturbing news:

For the twenty-nine unsuccessful topic searches, students were asked what they would do next if they were actually looking for this information. In twelve cases, students said they would simply stop looking or give up, assuming that no information on the topic was available. Other responses included "go to Google," "go to a database," "browse books on the shelf," "go to the law library," and "get advise from my professor." In three cases, the student was unsure what he or she would do next (see figure 5). Notably, not one student mentioned asking a library staff member for assistance.

I see two red flags here. The first is the idea that if a search does not find what is sought that there is nothing to find. At the risk of sounding old fashioned and crotchety, let me say that this sounds like the result of having had too much easy success in the past and settling for just enough. I think we as librarians should work to make our tools as easy to use as possible, with the goal of connecting clients and information/content that they seek, but we should convey that the tools are not perfect. I think some of our marketing that says "Hey, use this , it's easy!" backfires on us. Students and other clients believe us and then assume that if the easy search does not find anything, there is nothing to be found. How we can have positive and encouraging promotions that are still realistic is tricky. We need to think about this.

The second red flag is that none of the students thought of consulting a librarian. Here we may need to make it easy for them. Every catalog station in the library should have a "Librarians Can Help" notice prominently attached. Every search page and results page in the catalog should also offer librarian assistance. I do not know how we do this latter suggestion in a consortium shared catalog, but it seems needed to me if in a test no catalog user remembers that reference librarians could help.

We can not just sit tight after reading this paragraph. If clients can not remember that we are there, we must reintroduce ourselves. Be visible.

*I could not find this article on the RUSA website this morning. Perhaps the Fall 2008 issue needs reloading into the archive. Previous issues are available on the site.

The Georgian Star: How William and Caroline Herschel Revolutionized Our Understanding of the Cosmos by Michael D. Lemonick

If you know the names of astronomers William and Caroline Herschel, there is a good chance that you have a telescope which you bring out on clear nights to scan the stars. The brother and sister who were born in Hanover in eighteenth century Germany, the region from which the British monarchs of their time came, have been forgotten by recent general science textbooks. With The Georgian Star: How William and Caroline Herschel Revolutionized Our Understanding of the Cosmos, author Michael D. Lemonick aims to restore their fame.

The Herschels were quite famous in their time. William was a talented musician who migrated to Bath, England to play in orchestras that entertained the rich tourists who came to "take the healing waters." After several prosperous years and making prominent friends, he got the chance to look in a telescope and was hooked on the hobby of scanning the heavens for comets. Fairly soon he thought that he had found an unnamed comet, but it turned out that he instead discovered the planet Uranus, which he named Georgium Sidas in honor of George III, who then granted him a pension. He gave up music and moved to Windsor to be at hand when the king needed an astronomer to entertain his evening guests.

Caroline often helped her brother with his night scans as his scribe, recording his findings. She spelled him at the telescope as he tired and when he had other commitments. In the process, she became better than he at finding comets. In time, she too got a pension from the king and honors from the Royal Society and other science societies.

William and his brother Alexander built most of their telescopes, some of which they sold to rich patrons. They were almost killed in the collapse of one of their larger constructions. William and Caroline remapped the night sky, finding thousands of stars not yet plotted, as well as identifying the moons of Saturn. William coined the term "asteroid" and challenged the then prevailing belief that stars were spread uniformly across the universe.

William firmly believed that there were people on all the planets. He argued that God had no reason to make an uninhabited planet. He also believed that someday astronomers would find planets around all the stars. Only in the last two decades have they proven him right on the last count.

The Georgian Star is an entertaining quick read that may lead readers to other books in the Great Discoveries Series. More public libraries should have these books.

Lemonick, Michael D. The Georgian Star: How William and Caroline Herschel Revolutionized Our Understanding of the Cosmos. W. W. Norton, 2009. ISBN 9780393065749